GeForce GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 4096MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Virtual Reality is upon us with the likes of Oculus Rift already available and HTC Vive coming very soon. Valve have released a SteamVR benchmark which will test your system for VR Readiness, we advice customers to run this benchmark as the minimum specification to be VR Ready is a GTX 970 from camp NVIDIA. VR is a game changer for games such as Elite Dangerous, Portal 3, Flight simulator, Project cars and who knows the elusive Half Life 3 may make an appearance from Valve as being VR optimised, lets keep our fingers crossed.

Maxwell is the most advanced GPU architecture ever made, designed to be the engine of next generation gaming. Inspired by light, it was designed to solve some of the most complex lighting and graphics challenges in visual computing. For the first time, gaming GPU's can dynamically render indirect light using the new VXGI (Voxel Global Illumination technology). Scenes are significantly more lifelike as light interacts more realistically in the game environment.

The GTX 980 is the worlds fastest GPU and the GTX 970 offers the most advanced performance in its class. Each delivers 2x the performance of previous-generation card, bringing new gaming experiences to virtual reality, and ultra resolution 4k displays.

Enable the detail of 4k monitors, on a 1080P display. DSR produces smoother images by rendering a game at a high resolution, then downscaling it to the native resolution of the display using advanced filtering.

Get VR Ready with GeForce® GTX.
GeForce® GTX graphics cards provide a powerful next-generation platform for the ultimate immersive virtual reality experience. Immersive VR requires seven times the graphics processing power of traditional 3D apps and games. NVIDIA's unique set of features-such as multi-res shading-mean you get the right level of performance, image quality, and latency to ensure your VR experience is nothing short of amazing.

Customer review

Average customer rating

Great value for money

Price to performance of this card is unmatched in my opinon.

2015-05-02

Good performer, but too noisy.

My previous card the GTX 760 OC edition from EVGA set my foundness off with this company. The card ran beautifully and quietly under heavier loads. I expected the same from EVGA when purchasing the GTX 970 OC. I was quite dissappointed with what i got to see. (or hear)

The card itself is beautiful, i love the style of EVGA, especially with the ACX coolers. The card performed as you would expect , fantastic. My only real issue i personally had was with the noise level generated by the fans. This card uses the exact same cooling system as my old gtx 760. The 970 however is more powerful and runs at higher clock speeds causing the fans to work that little bit more to keep the temperature down. There has also been reports of a misalinged heat sink causing decreased cooling capability. Again, making those fans have to work that little bit more!

I ran Crysis on the highest settings, this caused the card to run at maxium with temperatures reaching 70/71 degrees. They say this is normal operating temperature, but for 70 degrees this card sounded like it was going to take off. The original Crysis game is not so GPU demanding, especially for a 2014 card on a 2007 game.
Some people have suggested that you set a custom fan curve, but this will either make your card run hotter, or youll have to put up with the fan noise at low temperatures.

Looks and performance this card does as you would expect. Very well. But if you are after a GTX that can keep cooler for maximum OC abilty or just simply like a 'quiet' build, this card may not be the best suited.

2015-03-16

EVGA GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0

Very happy with this card after upgrading from a PNY 770 GTX. Running battlefield 4 at ultra settings at 1080p with no noticeable coil whine.
The only downside (being picky) is that EVGA have about 7 different versions of the GTX 970 and it gets bit confusing as to which card is which.

2015-03-07

Could have been so much more

I'll start off with the positives, the card it'self ran fantastically, beat everything I put it up against and put them to shame.
However on the less than positive side, both cards that I have had, have both suffered from the accursed coil whine (something that seems unavoidable this gen). To top it off (though this was down to my own negligence) the card was neither supplied with a backplate nor had I purchased in time to claim one.

While a great card in some respects, someone over at evga seems to have dropped the ball with the most recent batch or with the current 970 series.

2015-01-27

Great card...

For all those who own a mini-ITX setup, hesitate no more. Yes, it's a full size card (with all bells and whistles that go with it), but very compact design, compared to other cards with aftermarket cooling. Certainly one of the slimmest, in terms of width, so if the length is not an issue then it is likely to fit in most cases of that format.
Unfortunately, it does not come with a backplate pre-installed and the promotion to receive it FREE of charge from EVGA has already ended, although one can still buy it from various places...
It runs very cool and even under stress does not go above 72C in my In-Win 901 case, with fans set to 55% (audiable, but not too loud). Majority of times, it's silent with fans idle on default fan settings. All fan settings (curves) can be preset to suit individual needs. All in all, very good performer and value for money.

2014-12-09

GTX 970

Just got this graphics card, upgrading my GTX 770 and am amazed by the performance increase. The EVGA line up has been given a lot of critic for its slightly miss aligned copper cooling pipes. However, this minor design flaw has had no impact for me with ideal temps at 34 degrees with 0%fan speed. The fans are set to not spin until 55 degrees and runs at 72 degrees under full load during BF4. I could have a lower temp as the fan speed never goes above 40% but is still great. I have managed to overclock to 1420 fully stable and will continue to boost the memory and the core clock a little further.

The backplate provided adds to the finishing touches to the card, and inside the case looks great. Absolutely brilliant card and great price point from Nvidea and EVGA.

2014-11-22

Awsome Card

brilliant replacement for my old card gtx 660 everything runs like a dream all is fine, fast delivery as always :) thanks overclockers brilliant as usual top card.

2014-11-20

5 stars

Just got this new baby today and i can say it is a beast. My old 6770 amd was hiting beraly 50-70 fps low-mid graphics bf4 .This one dekstop mode feels like its off i hear only heatsink, then pushed to 100% of fans...loud... but...
turn on bf4 ultra i was shocked ...played for 2h fps was going around 70 and 120 depending on map...temps after 2 h was 59C auto fans... and as i was saying when i maxed out fans to 100% it as very loud but playing on auto felt like they were no more then 40%. At that point u can't hear a diffrence is it heatsink or gpu... little noise, good temps good fps no huge drops,super happy. Probably best there for a price. Overclocking...omg get good vintilation... no need for water cooling easy 1.5k mhz stable 60-70C. It took me 3h with 70% fans on with OC 1550mhz~to reach 85C. Definatly buying 2nd one soon for sli. And afcause OC.uk quick delivery , finally got my haribos...after buying 3 times...but Im way too happy to complain